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Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation

About LSAMP

Since 1993, the University of Texas System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) has sought to increase the number of underrepresented minority students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. LSAMP intends to double the number of degrees awarded to minorities (women, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Native Americans) by 2015. The alliance encourages minority US citizens and permanent residents to earn Baccalaureate degrees and pursue a graduate education in the state of Texas through valuable research opportunities. In addition to UT Arlington, the alliance includes UT Austin, UT Brownsville, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, UT Pan American, UT Permian Basin, UT San Antonio, and UT Tyler.

Louis Stokes

Born in Ohio in 1925, Louis Stokes played an important role in the quest for civil rights in the United States, first as an attorney and later as a member of the US Congress. He attended Cleveland’s public schools, Western Reserve University, and earned his Doctor of Laws Degree from Cleveland Marshall Law School in 1953. Stokes served as a personnel specialist in the US Army from 1943 to 1946, spending most of his tour witnessing the segregated South. As a lawyer, he challenged the Ohio legislature’s redistricting in 1965 that followed the Supreme Court’s “one man, one vote” decision. In 1967, Stokes made an oral argument before the US Supreme Court in Terry v. Ohio, the precedent-setting “stop and frisk” case that defined the legality of police search and seizure procedures. Persuaded to run for office in 1968, Louis Stokes became the first African-American US Congressman from Ohio, and went on to serve for fifteen consecutive terms. He used his successes to try to increase opportunities for millions of African Americans. For more information on the life and work of Louis Stokes, please see: